Fnord.

FedEx arrived today, delivering two semi-expected packages. One contained a Nike+ SportBand and a 1GB USB key with images and such… cool toys, courtesy of Nike PR. This is for me to review for WatchReport, of course.

Second package arrived a few hours later… Nike had managed to find a pair of size 15 Nike shoes with the proper pocket for the accelerometer!

(I covered the predecessor Nike+ stuff a while back, see this page also.)

So my watch habit got me a free gadget watch AND a free pair of shoes. Those who know my shameful secret quest for comfortable shoes will understand just how happy I am right now. Shallow? Why yes, I suppose I am…

I’m (cough) not much of a runner, haven’t done it since track in high school, so we’ll see. I will at least hit the UCSD track at noon to walk a bit and see how it all works. Hmm. This competes with my Omron…

Drupal’s GUI editor always gives me a lowbrow double-take:

What were they thinking, eh?

Penelope Trunk’s blog is sometimes interesting, but with this post she’s hit a home run. Funny but serious, insightful and worth a read: Career Lessons from Elliot Spitzer’s prostitute. Seriously. I won’t even try and summarize it, as its short and excellent.

Secondly, ever what the door to hell looks like?  How about this?

Or maybe this?

Apparently a gas well in Uzbekistan that’s been burning for 35 years. Worth a read and to look at the pictures; quite striking.

… who loves his karaoke. From Dave Barry’s blog, news that John Denver’s ‘Country Roads’ song literally sparked a killing spree:

A gunman in Thailand shot-dead eight neighbours, including his brother-in-law, after tiring of their karaoke versions of popular songs, including John Denver’s Country Roads.

Weenus Chumkamnerd, 52, put his gun to the head of a respected female doctor and seven of her guests as they partied at her home in Songkhla Province, South Thailand.

“When I began shooting nobody pleaded for his life because they were all drunk,” he said after his arrest.
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He said he was so furious with their awful singing that he did not notice he had murdered his own brother-in-law.

“I warned these people about their noisy karaoke parties. I said if they carried on I would go down and shoot them. I had told them if I couldn’t talk sense into them I would come back and finish them off,” he added.

Mr Chumkamnerd, who works as a rubber tapper, was arrested after going on the run after his killing spree in the townn of Hat Yai, near the Malaysian border.

The doctor who was hosting the party, Dr Suthathip Thammachart, 36, was the director of a local hospital who was due this month to get an award for her services to medicine.

One of the revellers survived by playing dead, convincing the gunman that he too had been killed.

When he realised he had shot his brother-in-law, Boontip Desaro, Mr Chumkamnerd said he was filled with remorse.

He got his son to take Boontip to hospital, but he was already dead.

A neighbour said that the karaoke group normally sang Thai pop and southern Thai ballads, but one particular western tune could be heard often - John Denver’s ‘Country Roads’.

Country Roads is a hugely popular song in south east Asia and the neighbour said the revellers had been singing it over and over again.

Wow. The last name certainly adds to the humor, wouldn’t you say? It’s difficult to believe this actually happened, but it seems legit.

For a bit more humor, note that his actual name was Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr and he was poet laureate of Colorado.

Via Dan’s Data blog, a chemist blogs about chemicals he refuses to work with. And he’s damned funny.

That’s because the higher the percentage of nitrogens in the formula, the more you have to worry. Thermodynamically, nitrogens bonded to each other are always regarded as guilty until proven innocent - there’s always the fear that they’re going to find a way to throw off their civilized clothes and revert to wild nitrogen gas. That’s a hugely stable compound. If your structure goes that route, all that extra bonding energy it used to have ends up diverted into flying shrapnel and loud noises.
…

One carbon, one hydrogen, and nine nitrogens - look at the time! Gotta run!

Enjoy. It’s funny.

Subtle, eh? From the back of a foodie magazine. Yeesh.

Via DRB, this made me smile:

I also loved this one, picture links to source page. Magnificent!

This was on the sidewalk last summer outside my building. (Sort of my version of mercy, to wait a bit.)

Things that amused me:

1. Her name is also Christine
2. The rejection, in bold, circled.

Ouch.

I don’t know which order these will end up posted, due to the Postie plugin, so commentary may mismatch…
The first is a no-parking sign, at the corner of a Jack in the Box where the homeless often congregate. No love for the police, it would seem.

The second, on a lamppost 3 blocks away, is a form of project I never would have thought of: Make yourself presentable for the judge after a marijuana arrest.
Makes sense, but the cynical side of me wonders who’s paying and who benefits. Or maybe its a genuine charity and life has worn me down a bit. Either way, amusing.

From “Understanding Art for Geeks,” this lovely juxtaposition:

(For explanation, see this Wikipedia page)

The set of pictures is excellent; see how many in-jokes you catch. Via the reliably-interesting Anarchia.